1. 3 Contents Chapter Family Characteristics
Section 3.1 Family Structures
Section 3.2 Family Development

2. Section 3.1 Family Structures
Family structure is the form a family takes. Family personality is the traits that combine to make the family unique.

3. Family Structures Wellness
A family’s structure affects the way it functions. Its structure is defined by the number and types of family members. Structures change over time as people move in and out of the family group. There are many kinds of family structures. Families can be as varied as the people in them.
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4. Single People
Although a single person may maintain family bonds with his or her relatives, he or she lives apart from them, either alone or with roommates.
Single people typically have some freedoms that other people do not. They often do not have to worry about satisfying anyone else’s needs and can devote more time to their own interests.
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5. Couples
Couples in committed relationships rely on their partners for support. They often share interests and friends, but they can make time for their own pursuits.   
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6. In a nuclear family, both parents can share child-raising duties.
Nuclear Families
In a nuclear family, both parents can share child-raising duties.

7. Single-Parent Families
In a single-parent family, one parent must perform the many duties of running a family. Relatives and friends often help out.

8. Blended Families
It can be difficult for both parents and children to adjust to being part of a blended family. Creating a new family bond requires extra understanding.

9. Extended Families
The many members of an extended family continue to help and support one another no matter where they live.

10. Extended Families
No matter how old you are, you will always be your parent’s children. Once you turn 18, however, you are no longer their minor child, and they are not legally obligated to continue care.

11. Adoptive Families
It takes a legal process to create an adoptive family. An adopted child is not born to his or her parents. He or she is still protected by law like any other son or daughter.

12. Legal Guardians
Sometimes parents can no longer care for their children. A relative or close friend can act as the child’s parent by becoming their legal guardian.

14. Foster Families
When a parent can no longer care for their children and no relative or friend can step in, the children may go to a foster family.

15. Family Personality
A family is made of very different individuals, and each person contributes something unique to the group. A family’s personality is made up of all those traits. The personality of family is very complex. Different parts of it may be reflected in the family’s values, spending, or activities.
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16. Family Legacies, Traditions, and Rituals
Families use various methods to cement the ties among their members:
Legacy: Something handed down, such as a money, jewelry, or other personal property.
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17. Family Legacies, Traditions, and Rituals
Tradition: Something always done in certain situations or at certain times of the year, such as always going out to dinner to celebrate a birthday.
Rituals: Something done consistently, such as always saying grace at dinner.
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18. How Personality Affects Family Values
A family’s personality affects its values and influences how it spends its time. The members of a competitive family may play on school sports teams and enjoy family bowling nights. The parents of an intellectual family, however, may forbid sports in order to allow for more study time. Another type of intellectual family may prefer seeing documentaries and museums to studying. Every family is different.
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19. Family Atmosphere
The personality of a family creates its atmosphere. Here are some examples of family atmosphere:
Chaotic
Loud
Laid-back
Friendly
Formal
Distant
Quiet

20. Family Atmosphere Wellness
Each family personality also addresses the border between members and outsiders in a different way. Some family borders are very strict, and outsiders are not often invited as guests. Other families have loose boundaries that easily welcome outsiders to have dinner or just drop in.
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21. Family personality influences family decisions.
One Person Decides In an autocratic system, a single person makes the family’s key choices about money, chores, and vacation.
Shared Decision Making Democratic decision making allows children to express their opinions. One or both parents may still use adult judgment.

22. Interdependence
Families strengthen their bond when they share time and activities together. They build a feeling of interdependence.

23. Interdependence
A family can be relied on if you know it will always be there for you when you need it. If you rely on the family so much that you cannot make a decision without them, however, you are too dependent.

24. Family Goals
Many families have a special goal for the near or distant future. Goals are another reflection of the family personality.   

25. Families and the Media Wellness
The families you see in the movies and on TV may seem different from yours. A family in a movie may celebrate Thanksgiving with a giant banquet. A sitcom family seems to solve every problem in a quick scene or two. Real life, however, does not have screenwriters or perfect endings. Real families are different than the ones in the media, so do not expect your family to solve problems in the same way as media families.
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26. Create Family Bonds
Creating a bond is not the same thing as keeping it. It is easy to fall out of touch or get involved in other activities, even in a close-knit family. Members need to be proactive participants in the support system. Sometimes you have to make a special effort to maintain your family bond.
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27. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Give five examples of different family structures.

28. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Give five examples of different family structures.
Answers should include five of the following: single people, couples, nuclear families, single-parent families, blended families, extended families, adoptive families, legal guardians, foster families.

29. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Identify at least three factors that make up a family’s personality.

30. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Identify at least three factors that make up a family’s personality.
Answers should include at least three of the following: personality of family members, customs and rituals of family, family atmosphere and boundaries, how decisions are made, the amount of interdependence, family goals.

31. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Explain if images of families in the media represent all families. Why or why not?

32. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Explain if images of families in the media represent all families. Why or why not?
They are not real. They are created for entertainment. Although many times families on television can reflect some of the issues families deal with on a daily basis but these issues and situations are often exaggerated.

33. Section 3.2 Development
Families go through common stages of development. These include starting as a couple, the parenting years, the middle years, and the retirement years. There are other patterns and variations to these stages.

34. Stages of Family Development
Social scientists describe a basic pattern of development in families. The family structure progresses through various shifts.

35. Stages of Family Development
The family group moves through several stages of the family life cycle:
first as a couple, then as a parent, and finally into the later years.

36. Start as a Couple Wellness
As a couple, two people learn to think and act as a team. They must rely on each other and remain individuals. People need time to adjust to having a partner, and it depends on the couple how long this stage lasts. Many couples enjoy getting to know each better before having children. Some couples never have children at all.
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37. Money Education Careers Housing Children Start as a Couple
Couples must make decisions about one another throughout their relationship based on their current circumstance.
Money
Education
Careers
Housing
Children

38. The Parenting Stage Wellness
Families move into the parenting stage as soon as children join the couple, whether by birth, adoption, foster care, or guardianship. These are the expanding years. Often, new family members continue to be added. Families tend to become very focused on home life as small children demand their time and attention.
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39. The Parenting Stage Wellness
Families move into the developmental years as the children grow older and enter school. Many of the children’s activities are now out of the home. Families with School-Age Children: Children can communicate fluidly, and family unity peaks as they assume an active place in the family. Families with Teenagers: Teens become increasingly independent as they prepare to leave the home.
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40. The Parenting Stage
The parenting stage ends as children exit the home during the launching process. The launching process has recently started to take longer and longer, especially if children cannot earn enough money to live on their own.

41. The Middle Years
After the children grow up and launch, the family becomes a couple once more and enters the middle years.
An empty nest raises mixed feelings. Some parents feel purposeless without their children, while some parents take the chance to explore new hobbies or even a new career.

42. The Retirement Years Wellness
Retirement also raises mixed feelings. As the work of raising children and developing careers ends, some people wonder what to do with themselves. Others have been looking forward to traveling, relaxing, or other pursuits. People tend to feel more ready for retirement if they have planned for it. People who feel fulfilled with the life they have led are usually prepared for their later years.
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43. Length of Time in Each Stage Varies
The stages of development may be different lengths for different families. One family can have another child 15 years after its first, creating a very long parent stage. A young pair of parents with one child may have an unusually long middle years stage. Regardless, the stages themselves describe basic patterns in family development. The way each family experiences them only contributes more to each family’s uniqueness.
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44. Other Patterns of Family Development
Not every family fits into this general pattern. Some people may not marry. Some choose not to have children. Some marriages end in divorce. Some people remarry.
Couple
Expanding Years
Developmental Years
Launching
Middle Years
Retirement Years
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45. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Describe why it is helpful to break the family life cycle into stages of development.
It provides a stable pattern that explains how families form and develop.

46. After You Read Review Key Concepts
Explain why the family life cycle does not describe every family’s development.
There are many variations of the general pattern such as single people, divorce, not having children, older parenthood, and grandparents raising children. Some stages may be longer or shorter in different families.

47. End of
Chapter 3
A Closer Look at You